Elizabeth Laugeson, PsyD

Elizabeth Laugeson, PsyD

Clinical Professor, UCLA Semel Institute
Founder and Director, UCLA PEERS Clinic
Director, UCLA Tarjan Center UCEDD

Session 4C - The Science of Dating for Autistic and Neurodivergent Youth and Young Adults


Dr. Elizabeth Laugeson is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and is a licensed clinical psychologist. Dr. Laugeson is the Director of the UCLA Tarjan Center, University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, and is the Founder and Director of the UCLA PEERS Clinic, which is an outpatient hospital-based program providing parent-assisted social skills training for individuals from preschool to adulthood. Dr. Laugeson has trained tens of thousands of mental health professionals, educators, and families worldwide, and is dedicated to developing and testing evidence-based treatments to improve social skills across the lifespan and across the globe. As one of the only empirically supported and internationally recognized social skills programs for neurodivergent youth, her program is currently used in over 150 countries and has been translated into over a dozen languages.